My friends always make fun of me for being the friend that is too kind, I'm the girl who goes out of her way to be nice to everyone, and that's considered an issue? I guess the way I see it we as a community have lost our sense of identity, togetherness and just kindness towards our fellow citizens. People always seem to be generally surprised when I do something so kind for them, or at how nice of a person that I am. So when I am with friends and they start talking negatively about another close friend of ours, it instantly makes me uncomfortable. Suddenly put in this strange position of whether to tell that friend or keep it to myself. Usually, I go with not telling them, but that internally makes me hurt to see them interact with people who don’t regard them as highly.
According to the Huffington Post, “Kindness gives us healthier hearts,” when one commits a kind act there is usually emotional warmth that tags onto that. Emotional warmth produces oxytocin in the brain and through the body. Oxytocin is also responsible for the release of nitric oxide in blood vessels ,which expands blood vessels. The release of the nitric oxide reduces blood pressure so the heart is protected, therefore meaning that kindness can protect one’s heart due to the chemical releases that ensue. It is an incredibly easy feat to accomplish and out of it, you can feel good both from a health standpoint and a moral standpoint . Showing this kindness outwardly will also help you in any relationships you have. It creates more of a bond between two people.
Think about the “pay it forward” idea, where you pay for the coffee of the person behind you and supposedly it will set off a domino effect. I had never seen this happen in real life, until this past week. I was sitting at my favorite coffee shop and randomly a man standing in line decided he was going to pay for the orders of the three people behind him. I have no idea what prompted him to do that, but I just thought it was so rare and cool to see someone do something as simple as buying another person’s coffee. Kindness is truly a very simple thing that is incredibly overlooked and really shouldn’t be at all.
Overall, kindness is something that we as a society lack, it doesn’t even have to be a grand gesture. Even just the small act of holding a door open for someone on crutches or on a wheelchair will make their day just a little easier, and you will have helped that. I would love to say that if each of us is kind then we will change the world to be a much better place, but that is a bit too sunshine and rainbows for my taste. Instead, I’ll say this, choose to be kind not because it’s the right thing to do but because again think about how you would feel if your friends were talking shit about you, start promoting speaking highly of others and spread it like a domino effect and see what happens.
